It is now commonplace for consumers (or customers or shoppers or buyers or users) to select goods or products to be purchased, rented or otherwise obtained from remote client-server based suppliers. For example, such suppliers may be e-commerce or Internet-based retailers or merchants, which also may be referred to as an on-line retailer or merchant. For example, on-line retailers have set up on-line Internet web sites where consumers can shop for the products (or items or goods) that are available, purchase or rent the products desired, and have the products delivered to them. These products may be tangible goods, such as groceries, books, CDs, DVDs, tools, clothes, footwear, health/beauty items, hardware, office supplies, pet care products, auto care products, industrial supplies or any other tangible goods that are physically delivered to the customer, or “digital” goods, such as electronic books, music, movies/videos, application software, or any other digital product that is downloaded, copied, transmitted or otherwise electronically transferred to the customer. Items could even be animals or people, such as could be used in an animal adoption (or purchase) context or on a social networking or dating website.
To find a desired product for review or purchase, a customer will often perform a search using search tools available through an interactive catalog such as a merchant website described herein. The search results are typically displayed as a list of products that are related in some way to the search criteria. The customer then selects (or clicks on) a desired product in the list, which causes the website to display details of the selected product, including the product specifications, characteristics, features and/or images of the product. After reviewing the product details, the customer may either buy the product or return to the search results list to select another product to review.
One problem commonly encountered by online merchants is an inability to effectively market goods via their web sites. Because the customer cannot physically inspect the products via the web site, and typically cannot talk to a salesperson, it is desirable that the site provide access to product reviews, product ratings, and other information that can be reviewed and/or relied on by the customer to make an informed decision.
One known method is to provide access via the web site to customer reviews of the products available through the web site. However, customer reviews for a product may not be available, especially for the newest products. Additionally, since most of the customer reviews available through a merchant web site often seem to include only positive reviews as to the products in question, customers may be inclined to give little weight in a decision making process based on the customer reviews offered through a web site of a retailer selling the products.
Moreover, some conventional web merchants do not provide any access to third party reviews and/or comments as to the products offered for sale via an associated web site. Therefore, there is usually little or no access via the web site to any information regarding disadvantages or negative aspects of the featured products.
Additionally, customers searching for a gift, or otherwise searching for a product for which they are not the intended user and/or not too familiar with the subject matter thereof, often have little information on which to base a purchase decision. Even if the features of various products are identified, the advantages and disadvantages of similar products may be difficult to ascertain without a full understanding of the subject matter. Usually, web-retailers provide a product detail page identifying the features of each product offered for sale. However, a listing of a product's features may not be enough information for a consumer unfamiliar with the subject matter to make a decision as to which product best fits his/her needs.
Therefore, conventional techniques for assisting on-line shoppers when reviewing an item or comparing items can be insufficient or one-sided such that customers may be required to search elsewhere to find objective reviews and or comments as to the products available on many web sites or other interactive catalogs. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system and method for assisting shoppers that overcomes the limitations and inefficiencies of the conventional approaches that, among other potential benefits, provides current information regarding the available products.